NEHS was thrilled to receive so many wonderful scripts based on scenes from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In this Creative Challenge, student members were asked to read and watch The Tempest before rewriting a scene that was updated to 2024 and relevant to students’ particular geographic and cultural contexts. Winning scripts are published below.
All published students will be candidates to receive prizes at the end of the year.
The next round of Creative Challenges takes place April 15 – 29. NEHS is working closely with Journeys in Film to widen student access to documentary filmmaking opportunities, to encourage teachers to incorporate documentary filmmaking into their classrooms, and to engage with students interested in film as a story-telling medium. Our Documentary Filmmaking Challenge is focused on the efforts being made by organizations to improve literacy within student members’ local communities.
The evaluation team looks forward to receiving high quality submissions via the NEHS AwardSpring platform.
Read on to enjoy the Winter Creative Challenge winning submissions!
Winter Winners: Script Writing
Amelia Tharp
Webb School of Knoxville, TN
Amelia Tharp is a junior at the Webb School of Knoxville. As an East Tennessee native, she has grown up surrounded by beauty in nature. It is from this that she draws much of her inspiration when writing. Her love of storytelling can be traced back to her childhood, when she would tell her younger brother nightly stories to help him fall asleep. Over time, those tales matured into written poetry, short stories, and scripts. Her passion only grew after she switched to the Webb School as a sophomore. Amelia strives to write about the world around her—twisting her emotions and experiences into pieces of creative language, and then sharing them with her community to inspire others and spark change.
Ashley Hernandez
Jose Marti STEM Academy, NJ
Ashley Hernandez is a junior at Jose Marti STEM Academy located in Union City, NJ. Her love of literature began when she was in sixth grade and her teacher announced that their class would be reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Despite never truly understanding the appeal of books prior, Ashley was immediately drawn to the way Rick Riordan managed to immerse readers in his storytelling and create an exhilarating, vibrant adventure through words. From then on, she aspired to be able to produce her own works that would leave the same lasting impact on others.
Aquiba Serfati
Scheck Hillel Community School, FL
Aquiba Serfati is an eleventh-grade student at Scheck Hillel Community School in Miami, FL. Ever since he was young, Aquiba has always used writing as his way to express his thoughts and sentiments, whether writing a simple response on how kicking a seamlessly meaningless ball up and down a grass rectangle made him feel complete or composing a complex text discussing his reflections on building his dream business. Regardless of the cause, Aquiba has always related to the joy of pressing a computer key by key and being rewarded with the precious gift of a unique story that can represent a million ideas and can never be replicated.
Regina Gutiérrez
PrepaTec Saltillo, Mexico
Regina Gutiérrez is from Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. Regina is currently studying at PrepaTec Saltillo, where she is a junior. Her love for literature started at 10 years old with a book called Serafina and the Black Cloak. Since then, her reading interests have evolved from fantasy worlds and science fiction into murder mysteries and romance sagas. She is also passionate about writing, especially poetry and short stories. Regina forms part of the very first NEHS chapter at her school and is eager to keep participating.
Paola Jiménez
PrepaTec Santa Fe, Mexico
Paola Jiménez is a second-year student at PrepaTec Santa Fe in Mexico City. She is sixteen years old and has found that one of the things she loves the most is the magic that can be created by words; she loves getting lost in them and learning new things that can be done with them.
Lucas Boden
Dunwoody High School, GA
Lucas Boden is a junior at Dunwoody High School in Atlanta, GA. Lucas enjoys reading and his favorite subject is Language Arts. Lucas’s favorite book is Where the Red Fern Grows because dogs are the best. Lucas runs track and cross country for Dunwoody High School, plays soccer for a club, and thinks that a lot of inspiration for writing can be gathered from sports. Lucas has a cat, a dog, and a sister. Half of his family lives in Brazil, so he visits them often and eats a lot of shrimp tacos, which are his favorite food.
